Say it in plain words

One search box for the whole County. “Pay my taxes” finds the Treasurer, “get married” finds the marriage license, and suggestions appear as you type so residents can choose the right answer before they press Search.

Start typing. Suggestions and results update as you go, and the top results include direct action links.

Search needs JavaScript here. Without it, the full document index is listed on the Documents page, and every service is on the Services page.

Under the hood

A documented service, not a black box

This search runs on a small, documented web service over the County's records, with plain-language synonyms tuned for how residents actually ask: taxes reaches the Treasurer, deck reaches building and zoning, dog reaches licensing.

That matters beyond the search box. The County's RFP asks for AI‑chatbot readiness, and a chatbot is only as good as the service it can query. This one is already in place: any future assistant, kiosk, or third‑party tool can ask it questions without touching the rest of the site.

The same service powers the faceted document finder and the command‑bar search on every page.

# the live service behind this page

GET /api/search-cheboygan?q=building+permit&limit=5

{
  "mode": "keyword",
  "count": 5,
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "Building Permit Application",
      "category": "Building Safety",
      "type": "Application",
      "url": "/cheboygancounty/documents/#building-permit",
      "relevance": 99
    }
  ]
}

# full index for the document finder
GET /api/search-cheboygan?all=1

Say it in plain words

Results

A documented service, not a black box